by M. D. Cooper
It hung over the fireplace, an image of a ship passing close to a dim red star, alone in the dark and desperate to survive.
At least that was how she saw it, hopefully so would any others who ever laid eyes upon it.
She stood as Joe strolled into the cabin, dirty and wearing his trademark grin.
“How’s the garden doing?” Tanis asked.
“A little worse for my working in it,” Joe chuckled.
Tanis doubted his statement. Over the last few decades Joe had become a consummate gardener, able to grow anything he wanted without bots or nano of any sort.
“Things ready for the party tonight?” He asked.
“Yup, spic and span and ready for our guests,” Tanis replied, closing in for a kiss and an embrace.
“It occurred to me that we’re having this celebration on the wrong day.” Joe said.
“Wrong day? It’s New Year’s Eve,” Tanis replied.
“Yeah, but no one really celebrates that anymore, you just found it in some book from when people used the Gregorian calendar.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, if we were measuring in Sol standard years, four years ago was the one-hundredth anniversary of our leaving the Sol system.”
“Really?” Tanis thought for a moment. “I guess you’re right. Well, then there was just the two of us awake. Now we have enough for an actual shindig.”
With the Intrepid finally drawing near to Kapteyn’s Star, a skeleton crew was now out of stasis. After spending over six decades alone on the ship with just Joe, Angela, and Bob; even the few dozen people rattling around the ship felt like enough for the party of a lifetime.
Ouri had been a bit surprised to find her home occupied by new owners. She was also surprised to find her cabin enlarged enough that it had several spare bedrooms. She promptly moved back in.
Terry Chang and Jessica decided that rather than work alone in the SOC they would take up residence in the cabin as well.
Tanis was certain that a part of their decision related to how dark and empty the ship felt above them. Hundreds of square kilometers of the Intrepid were cold and silent. It didn’t make for a comfortable working environment.
By comparison the cylinders were still alive and vibrant, the long sun that ran through each carried its own internal power and would run for centuries. The choice of where to live was a simple one.
In addition to learning a variety of new leisure skills, Tanis had spent much of the past sixty years pouring over every detail of every colonist on the Intrepid; as well as the history of every nut, bolt, and panel; looking for the common thread.
All she had now were a thousand threads.
The problem was that many things did stand out as anomalous—though that was expected. However, following up on leads from a hundred and eight years ago while seven light years away from Sol was no simple task.
Especially since the Intrepid didn’t want to announce that it was off course and behind schedule. Tanis and Bob had made discrete requests of trusted sources back in Sol, looking to get information that could lead them to find out who was behind all of the Intrepid’s continued problems.
One thing they did know was that after the Intrepid left the Sol system, Myrrdan had never been seen or heard from again. They were certain that he was on the ship, though no sign of any other saboteurs or sabotage had appeared in the years since the annihilator explosion.
Tanis was positive that he would not have been behind the near-crash into LHS 1565, unless Collins had been Myrrdan. It was possible, but Tanis felt like Hilda’s actions meant he was still on board. There were also a hundred possible ways to link the STR on Jupiter to Myrrdan, but none of them felt right to Tanis.
Everything she knew about the criminal mastermind told her that he liked to watch, he enjoyed toying with people, making them jump through hoops for his amusement.
Granted, Hilda could have been a failsafe for the anti-picotech group, or the knowledge of the forbidden technology had bothered her enough that she had taken matters into her own hands.
After coming out of stasis, Jessica had spent several weeks in near isolation re-examining the data Tanis had received from Earth, looking over every lead, trying to discover the clue that would tell them who or where Myrrdan was. She had not come any closer unearthing any conclusive evidence.
Tanis was certain that Jessica blamed herself for the Intrepid’s situation. If she had caught Myrrdan, then perhaps some act of sabotage would not have taken place and the ship would not be in the state it was.
It was a feeling Tanis knew all too well. Though she tried to tell herself otherwise, she awoke every day for the last sixty years knowing that if she were more capable, the Intrepid would nearly be at New Eden by now, the colonists all starting their new lives.
“You’ve got that ‘lost in thought’ look,” Joe smiled as he stroked her long blonde hair.
Tanis brought her focus back to the present and looked into his eyes. “Just thinking about the years.”
“You’re even more beautiful than when I met you, you know. Even though you’re starting to get old,” Joe grinned and pinched Tanis’ cheek.
“Hey! I’m not the one starting to get crow’s feet around my eyes.” Tanis pointed at the faint lines around Joe’s eyes.
“You said you liked them!” Joe pretended to look hurt.
“I do like them,” Tanis smiled, “But they do mean you’re getting old.”
Other than checkups from an autodoc, neither she nor Joe had received any anti-aging treatments over the years. Far longer than the normal two-decade interval between cellular rejuvenation treatments.
The pair had decided it would make for an interesting experiment to see what they would look like as they aged. Aside from Joe’s aforementioned crow’s feet around his eyes and the odd grey hair on their heads neither appeared to be a day over thirty.
“You may be older than me, but that doesn’t get you respect on its own,” Joe put on a stern face before breaking into a smile.
“Sure thing, gramps,” Jessica said with a raspy voice as she walked into the cabin’s main room. “You have seen a lot of years in this tube—crazy, long years; that counts for something I guess.”
“You know… I'm only… damnit, something like a hundred and thirty real years. This temporal shit is hard to work out.”
“Still just a kid, then,” the captain said from the door Joe had left open.
“That’s more like it,” Joe said. “I bow to age and wisdom.”
“That is a wonderful smell,” Captain Andrews took a deep breath. “Is that turkey?”
“It sure is, fresh from the pen. I decided to do this right,” Joe replied.
Angela weighed in.
“Always trying to ruin my fun,” Tanis said. “But not this time! Today the gravy is perfect and the stuffing is magnificent, it’ll be a night to remember.”
Tanis conscripted Jessica and Captain Andrews into setting the table while Joe set out appetizers and prepared drinks for the arriving guests.
Ouri rushed in, waved a quick greeting and dashed up the stairs to change out of her uniform. Terry followed soon after, dressed for a night of relaxation.
“That Ouri is a real task-master,” she said, after taking a long sip of her martini. “Kept me working till the bitter end.”
Tanis laughed. “I can’t imagine she’s worse than I was.”
Terry smiled playfully. “You have no idea, she rules the SOC with an iron fist, no compassion whatsoever.”
“I what?” Ouri stood behind Terry with a wounded expression on her face. “I let you leave two hours early today to get your favorite dress out of your storage locker!”
Tanis laughed and Terry turned to give the wounded looking Ouri a hug. “I’m kidding, just making small talk with the dragon lady.”
“Hey!” Tanis said. “I resent that.”
Ouri chuckled. “
You are good at ferreting things out, but you never heard that one did you?”
“What, dragon lady?” Tanis asked.
Joe handed her a sangria, “I remember that, we all referred to you as the DL for your first few months onboard. Ouri lived in constant fear of you.”
Tanis knew she came in swinging a hammer, but she thought she was pretty mellow with her select crew.
“I thought I was pretty relaxed!”
Terry snorted while drinking and proceeded to have a small coughing fit.
“And look where that got us,” Tanis frowned. Maybe I should have kept my hammer.
“Let’s not go there,” Joe said. “Tonight is a night of happiness.”
Refreshments were brought out and by the time everyone sat down at the table, Terrance, Amanda, Trist, and Earnest had joined the group.
Tanis couldn’t help but notice the absence of Abby. For Tanis their fight had been decades ago, barely remembered. For Abby it was mere weeks in the past and still fresh in her mind. Tanis hoped they could mend the rift. At least Abby would be able to function professionally—at least as much as she ever did—when the time came.
Joe carved the turkey; Tanis was better at it, but she made him do it because it was quaint and nice to relax after a long day in the kitchen.
After the food was served and people started to tuck in, Captain Andrews stood and conversations stilled as eyes turned to him.
“One hundred and four years,” he said with a heavy pause. “Just shy of the original flight time and we’re still only halfway to our destination.”
People around the table nodded; Terrance looked especially pained.
“But through the efforts of this team we’re still here and we will make it to New Eden. I’m sure that when we all signed on for this mission not a one of us expected to face the types of obstacles we have. Heck, not all of us even expected to be on this mission,” the captain raised his glass to Jessica who laughed in response.
“But I want to thank you all—.” Captain Andrew’s speech was interrupted by Bob’s voice coming over all of their Links.
“I did?” Jessica asked.
“I remember that…it was decades ago,” Jessica ran a hand through her hair. “Have you been considering that for all this time?”
Several eyebrows raised and the party-goers cast glances around the table. Tanis simply nodded. She had considered each of her fellow revelers as top candidates for the role of villain as well.
Tanis raised her hands and shrugged. “What can I say, you got me.”
“Not funny,” Captain Andrews frowned.
Once I had it right, the model pointed at events we never knew happened. I made discrete inquiries back to Sol and found that those events did indeed happen.>
“Wait…” Tanis interrupted. “Are you saying you made a true reverse prediction model? You can identify and confirm events in the past for which you have no record?”
“That’s hardly new,” Jessica said. “We used models like that all the time at the TBI.”
“I have too,” Tanis nodded slowly. “But this feels different.”
Tanis nodded, Jessica let out a long whistle, and even the captain’s ever-stoic expression shifted to one of surprise.
“That’s quite the feat,” Captain Andrews said. “How many events did you test against?”
A long silence settled over the table as the weight of Bob’s words sunk in.
Tanis couldn’t help but wonder what sort of thing Bob was becoming. Even though she knew he required a physical housing and power, she found herself thinking his abilities were becoming god-like.
Finally, Joe spoke.
“Like… ever, ever?”
Tanis wasn’t certain, but she detected a tone of smugness in Bob’s voice.
“This is going to change a lot of things,” Terrance said. “A world where no past event can be secret is a little alarming.”
“Especially since there’s no reason you couldn’t point this model at the future,” Earnest said with a frown. “How far out does it work, Bob?”
Joe chuckled. “He’ll soon have all our lives mapped out.”
“Wow,” Jessica said. “They’re going to put us cops out of business.”
“I thought you said it had a one-hundred percent accuracy rate.” Tanis said. “How is that not accurate enough?”
Bob replied.
“Like me, right?” Tanis asked with a sigh.
Joe chuckled. “That sounds about right.”
“What events did you get confirmation on?” Tanis asked, hoping to change the subject.
Joe leaned back in his chair and sipped from his wine glass. “I sense a but.”
“Hilda,” Tanis and Jessica said together.
They cast sidelong glances at each other and Jessica shook her head ruefully, “I’m not sure who is rubbing off on who here.”
Bob clarified his point.
“Then you are referring to Myrrdan,” Jessica grimaced. “He could have done this…except that I don’t know how he could have done this.”
“What I don’t understand,” Terrance interjected. “Is why he destroyed the annihilator. I understand that Hilda would have thought she was saving the day, but how did that help him?”
“Why go to all this trouble? Could he have not taken the tech in Sol?” Trist asked.
“You have to be in his head, Joe,” Jessica said. “He wants the tech developed. After losing it on Mars he must have realized that the sub-rosa purpose of the New Eden project was to develop the picotech. So here we are, a colony ship going somewhere nice and quiet, with the tech he wants and the ability and plans to develop it. To someone like him we’re a match made in heaven.”
Silence settled in around the table as everyone let the fact that their every action since the day they brought the picotech onboard had played right into Myrrdan’s hands.
Finally, Earnest spoke. “I thought you said there was one thread. With this proposed timeline, Myrrdan could not have been responsible for the early sabotage, nor was he behind the STR.”
“It’s that there is no thread,” Tanis stood and walked to the fireplace. “We’ve all believed that there was no way so many disparate forces could be arrayed against us that we had to be missing some commonality. This proves that we were looking in the wrong place—each threat was actually unique.”